Please provide documentation about which temporary files/cache that can safely be deleted without affecting IDE's functionality

Question

On using Visual Studio IDE (I currently use Community 2019) for C++ development, there seem to be multiple files/folders that are generated that are quite big in size.

Could you please provide a complete list of files/folders that can safely be deleted without affecting the IDE's functionality?

For instance, in VSCode, there are cache folders files that can be deleted. See discussion here. In particular, for vscode-cpptools extension, there is the ipch file/folder that can be deleted. See discussion here.

Similarly, when doing C++ development using VS IDE, is there a comprehensive list of folders that can be so deleted?

Previous questions along these lines seem to provide different answers that are not quite consistent and complete.

See such discussions here, here and here.

Answer 1

Hi, @Tryer_Git

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A!

After searching, I found some explanations about the functions of the "bin" and ".vs" folders. Unfortunately, I did not find any official documents detailing the functions of these folders and whether they can be safely deleted.

You can directly advise Visual Studio Product Team to create a document about whether the temporary folder/cache can be safely deleted in our Developer Community.

Sincerely,
Peng

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